Broccoli Bites Recipe

Broccoli bites double as a crowd-pleasing appetizer or a kid-friendly lunch. Really, they’re quite clever. Who doesn’t love broccoli surrounded by melted cheese? Broccoli bites serve up both broccoli and cheese, but packaged as a finger food! Paired with a maple-dijon dipping sauce, they quickly become a favorite.

Inspired by the popularity of a similar appetizer served at Bennigan’s restaurants, I wanted to adapt it to be 1)actually healthy, and 2)easy. The Bennigan’s version contains bacon and onions and is served up fried in nasty vegetable oil. While I’d normally be all over adding bacon and onions to just about anything, I also wanted to keep this simple so that I could throw it together quickly.

Maple-Dijon Dipping Sauce: The How-To
Simply stir all ingredients together and serve! YUMMILICIOUS!

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About the Author

Kristen Michaelis CNC has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2008. Founder and CEO of Food Renegade, she's a passionate advocate for REAL FOOD -- food that's sustainable, organic, local, and traditionally-prepared according to the wisdom of our ancestors. She earned a Bachelor of Arts (summa cum laude) from Dallas Baptist University in Philosophy and Biblical Studies, then began her post-graduate journey as a researcher in the fields of health and nutrition. While she adores hats & happy skirts, nothing inspires her quite like geeking out over nutrition & sustainable agriculture. Nutrition educator & author of the go-to book on nutrition for fertility, she's also a rebel with a cause who enjoys playing in the rain, a good bottle of Caol Isla scotch, curling up with a page-turning book, sunbathing on her hammock, and parenting her three children as they grow into young adults.

Yes!! Success!! Thanks for tips on getting the flour and eggs right. I used 1/3 C. coconut flour and 6 eggs. Plus I think I had closer to a pound and a half of broccoli. These were the surprise hit at dinner time with my hubs and 4 and 2 year olds!! Thank you!

Well, after watching my 4 1/2 year old look like I served him Drano tonight when I put two pieces of broccoli on his plate, this looks like a good bridge for him as I try to work more veggies into his diet.

Ok, so I thought what a wonderful way for me to get my fat % up and still get a vegie! LOL…I didn’t have almond flour so used coconut flour. Dry and odd and I don’t know…didn’t turn out well…they look so good in the picture!

Did you do what I suggested to Carolina above for adapting the recipe to use coconut flour? Because coconut flour is so dry, you need to radically reduce the amount of flour used AND increase your eggs.

nope! LOL…I didn’t see this til today rats!
So I didn’t use as much flour..but still used 3/4 cup…and next time will use more eggs! I also noted that in the Stacy site, she used Mozzarella…so that is why the picts look different. Any particular reason you chose cheddar instead???
I’m new to all this eat more fat idea…really good with the eat whole food, the way it was created and get away from all the grains and processed food! I’m so happy to have found this site!

Mmmmm! Just made these tonight for my husband and I. I think even broccoli haters will like them; they also would be good to serve to lacto-ovo vegetarians, as they are rather “meaty” in texture. My husband said these were very much like falafel, but much, much better. The sauce pairing was perfect, too.

I probably didn’t chop the broccoli quite fine enough on this first attempt, so next time I’ll cut the stems and florets coarsely, then pulse them in the food processor. And for those wondering, no, the broccoli isn’t cooked first. Rolling the semi-crumbly/sticky mixture into balls didn’t work well for me, but gently squeezing them into ball shapes worked fine as long as I placed them very gently on the baking pan. Next time I might use a cookie dough scoop to make sure they are more uniformly sized. They can be spaced rather close together, too – almost touching. I baked them in a large convection toaster oven and they fit perfectly on a 12″ square baking pan.

I’m also thinking this mixture would be very good pressed into a buttered casserole or loaf pan.

Could these be made in advance, frozen, and then baked just prior to serving? If not, maybe made & baked and then frozen? Looking for crative and fun ways to have a healthy lunch, but don’t always feel like doing much work mid day. TIA!

If you were here in front of me I would kiss you! Thank you for this recipe! Before they shut down, my husband and I loved the broccoli bites from Bennigans. I’ll surprise him with this recipe this week. He’ll be so happy.

YUMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!! It only took me 2 days to eat all of these (okay, so I shared 2 with my daughter), they are so good and so addicting. Thank you for this and all your other great recipes. We have just eliminated a lot of foods in our house, and these recipes are making my life so much easier.

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Founder and CEO of Food Renegade, Kristen Michaelis CNC has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2008. She’s a passionate advocate for REAL FOOD — food that’s sustainable, organic, local, and traditionally-prepared according to the wisdom of our ancestors. [LEARN MORE]